Understand design, Understand the future

From our perspective, to know and "get" design and understand how it applies to you and your brand is of a value that I can't even begin to put a price tag on.  So for those who are not in the design world and/or don't quite see how the pieces connect (design and business)...the thousand mile journey begins with the first step: what design is. . .

10 questions you should ask about your brand (pt. 2)

And we continue. . .

• Is my brand an improvisation? In my good friend Mike Bonifer's book Gamechangers, he talks about the networked world. A world with new rules, new players, new ideas and new strategies. His bottom line question is how do you effectively navigate the 21st century marketplace? Be a top level improviser. This means knowing and understanding that you do not know: who your next email will be from, who will be on the other line when you get that next phone call, or how will your next sales meeting go. Mike says in the opening paragraph of his book - "The future is unscripted". This means your brand cannot be rigid. It has to be fluid and agile. To be relevant and provide value in the networked world one of your top level skill sets needs to be dexterity. 

• Is design thinking a part of my brands vocabulary? In this conversation it would be valuable to focus from on an architectural perspective – which at the core, is systems design and integration. If you look at any house or building, that’s exactly what it is. The plumbing system, the air conditioning system, the electrical system and the structural system are all integrated to form a home, an office, or a place. How one entity integrates with another is at the core.  Take a look at the marketplace. The private sector is integrating with the non-profit world (CSR - corporate social responsibility).  Entrepreneurship is integrating with altruism (social entrepreneurs). T-shirt design is integrating with crowdsourcing (Threadless t-shirt company). Businesses are trying to integrate marketing and social media.  And this is just scratching the surface. The sooner you are able to leverage design thinking for your business the quicker you can get to creative ideas for who and what your brand is. 

• Is my brand leveraging social objects? According to Hugh McCleod the social object is the future of marketing. Very succinctly Hugh says this: The Social Object, in a nutshell, is the rea­son two peo­ple are tal­king to each other, as oppo­sed to tal­king to some­body else. Human beings are social ani­mals. We like to socia­lize. But if you think about it, there needs to be a rea­son for it to hap­pen in the first place. That rea­son, that “node” in the social net­work, is what we call the Social Object.

I totally agree with him (with a few thoughts of my own on the future of marketing) and advise you think about how your brand uses this idea.

• Can my brand answer this question?

Our brand is the only _______________ that  _________________. 

In the first blank put the name of your area, category, specialization (pizza shop, marketing consultancy, computer repair shop). In the second blank put what it is that only your company does. Now if you can't do this, hmmmmm. . .

If someone else or another company does what your company is doing and you can't say why you're different, then why should we hire you instead of them?

• Does my brand have a story? A brand or a business should be memorable. Now how does that happen? By telling a story that makes people smile, cry, laugh or identify with you. When you do any of these you connect with people. And connection is absolutely vital.  If you are talking about your business and you say "we sell baked goods that taste good" - what's memorable about that?!  You have to tell a story. . . "Well it all started on my 30th birthday. Looking at that "3" and that "0" on the cake that my friends and family had made for me, and then. . .thinking to myself. . . I am n-o l-o-n-g-e-r in my 20's and then it hit me!"  This will make people smile, or maybe even laugh (depending on how good a story teller you are) and definitely identify with you because who didn't have that brief or long moment of silence with themselves when their 30th birthday hit?

Now ladies and gents these aren't the only ten questions you should be asking but they're not a bad place to start. 

Now I'm wondering do you have any questions that we should be asking about our brands?

10 questions you should ask about your brand

About 5 years ago I attended a conference entitled Creative Places + Spaces : Risk Revolution (organized by Toronto Artscape) in Toronto.  Right before I attended it, I came across an article in the Toronto Star Newspaper about the upcoming conference, written by Alan Webber, co-founder of Fast Company Magazine (one of the plenary speakers) entitled - The Future of the Future - The 5 revolutions that are shaping the world. The article was insightful and powerful.

In the article, Alan pointed out four operating rules that would support the five revolutions. At the time, and even now, the second operating rule continues to be a very powerful one for me. As Alan stated "if we want to see the future, we have to ask the right questions about it." If you think about it, asking the wrong questions leads you to answers which at the end of the day have no value. And being in a place in which no value is being generated, is an extremely precarious and problematic situation.  A predicament to avoid at all costs.

So in the spirit of relevance, value providing and preparing for the future (that's happening right now), ten questions you should be asking. . .

• Is my brand interesting?  Who wants to be boring?  Any takers. . .anyone. . . anyone?  Boring is something nobody wants to be. Now in business school there aren't any classes offered on "the science of interesting" but creating excitement around your brand should be a top priority.  Figuring out how to do this, and do it well, will quickly position you at the top of your class (or ahead in the market).

• How is my brand leveraging content? Today content is everywhere (easily created and accessible); blogs, videos, social media, websites, online magazines, etc. People can find out about who you are in ways never before possible. Sometimes the brand is content.  Either way ladies and gents, how are you leveraging content to let the world know who you are and what you are doing?

• Is my brand seductive?  When between two people, this is one thing. But when seduction happens between an idea and an audience you're onto something powerful.  Well you might ask what is the relevance between a brand and seduction? Well, in the spirit of this idea, let me seduce you here. . .

• Is my brand different. . .(no, radically different)? Today, right now, if you take what you do and google it, does anyone or anything else come up on the page? If the answer is "yes," then why should someone hire you vs. any of those other people? Marty Neumier says that when everyone zigs, you zag, and in his book ZAG, radical differentiation is the strategy for competitive advantage (especially in the 21st century).

• Does my brand have thick value? According to Umair Haque and the Awesomeness Manifesto thick value is real, meaningful, and sustainable. Not "perceived" value as we have been bombarded with by less than authentic commercials and trivial ad campaigns.  It happens by making people authentically better off — not merely by adding more bells and whistles and features to a product. Real (thick) value provides something that makes your day to day more enjoyable and pleasurable, and god forbid improves our quality of life.

. . .to be continued

The Bran(d)gelina Effect

Growing up in Las Vegas, “the entertainment capital of the world” and having frequently made the four-hour jaunt up the road to the City of Angels, the home of Hollywood, I have a love/hate relationship with the world of glitz and glam.  That love/hate is particularly strong with the latter – all things Hollywood. From the sheer ingenuity and creativity that is produced from its world, to the absurdity of the lifestyle in tinseltown that runs rampant (not to mention the insanity of the Paparazzi . . . but that’s another story), its a world that I love and hate. . . with a passion.

A wild eyed, intriguing and preposterous creature that Hollywood is.

One corner of this world though, I’m drawn to, find intriguing, and I’m genuinely interested in. 

Brangelina.

When I think about both Brad and Angelina, I think about how they communicate who they are to the world and why brands should take note. 

• A brand should be thought provoking - Watch Twelve Monkeys, Fight Club, Babel and the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. There’s enough thought provoking conversations in those movies for days.

• Brands should be seductive – As Lee Clow says, “every brand touch point needs to be treated as if it were an opportunity to seduce an audience” and Brangelina are (easily) in the top 10 list of the most seductive people in the world.

• A Brand should have substance – Having served in the Peace Corps for 2 ½ years and worked and traveled in developing countries in southern and east Africa, I know that Angelina Jolie isn’t a UN Ambassador because she’s trying to be a rock star. There’s a genuine compassion on her part, for people living in unstable communities across the world.

• Brands should leverage the power of storytelling – who tells stories better than the actors and directors of Hollywood?

• Brands and Design should have much more intimate conversations with each other.  Charlie Rose asked Brad Pitt in an interview a few years back that if he wasn’t an actor what would he be and Brad's response,  “I’d be an architect." This isn’t just lip service. For some time now he’s been working with the avant-garde architecture firm Graft out of Berlin. Stepping into the world of design can change and transform the way you interpret the world.

• Brands should have a healthy disregard for the status quo and should look to not play by the rules. This is the role of rebels, and Angelina is the female rebel of Hollywood.

• Brands should provide value – Value is something that matters. In many ways it would be difficult to say that these two did not matter to one another. They are providing that support to each other and to their children. It’s A small community of 8 (but a community nonetheless) and they matter to one another. The question you should never stop asking is "how does your brand matter and to who?"

Now whether by design or by default the Bran(d)gelina effect results in sexiness, substance, power (star power that is), appeal, purpose and viability. Now say what you want . . .any brand would kill to have all of the above – in the same time and space.

So now you just might want to go and get your Bran(d)gelina on folks. . .go and get your Bran(d)gelina on. . .

New ideas? A dime a dozen. It's about making ideas happen!

Late last year, I was working with one of our former clients, the XAgency, here in DC. During one of our strategy sessions I asked them if there was a company or organization out there I could reference that would help me understand what is that they were trying to do.  They told me to check out these guys called Behance and that they were doing some phenomenal work similar to what they were going for.  So I did. I immediately fell in love with their whole premise. The world doesn't need more ideas. What we need is to make ideas happen. 

I was sold hook, line and sinker. 

So this past April  when I found out they were holding an event called the 99% conference. . . I was there! On the second afternoon of the conference I was able meet Scott in an informal setting, along with a handful of other conference attendees and we engaged in a very cool discussion on creativity, challenges, productivity and solutions. A really awesome session. 

After that I wanted to get a more direct conversation with Scott and find out more about Behance. 

Check it out. . .

1. Hey Scott, for our readers, tell them a little bit about Behance.  What is the company about, what is your focus, and what's your vision for the organization?

I have always found the creative process a bit frustrating. Amazing stuff happens in the minds of creative people, but so few of these ideas actually materialize...

Our team is obsessed with organizing the creative world. Why? Because we think that great ideas are MORE LIKELY to happen when creative people and teams are more efficient.

So, in 2005, we started developing tools and methods that help organize the creative world! The Action Method (actionmethod.com) was designed to "push" creative people to take more action on their ideas. The Behance Network (behance.net) was developed to efficiently showcase and organize the work of creative professionals, for the purposes of mass exposure and career development.

And our most recent project, The99Percent.com, is a HUGE resource on execution and leadership insights for creative people and teams. 

2. Why did you decide to start the company? 

 Quite simply: I am extremely passionate about the cause (and potential) of organizing the creative world. I think life would be more interesting (and society more fulfilled) if more great ideas were made to happen!

In many ways, Behance is an effort to professionalize and empower creative people to lead their ideas to fruition.

3. What are some of the biggest challenges that Behance has faced over the years?  What have been some of your own personal challenges?

 It is VERY VERY challenging to launch a creative, sustainable business. And we have decided to stay independent (no big VC funders or agencies investing in the company). As a result, we have had to build the company product by product. But this has tied us more tightly with the community that we serve. We have no regrets, despite how much perspiration was required to get Behance off the ground.

Personally, I have learned more about my own capacity. While I do believe that hard work is the greatest differentiator (especially among entrepreneurs), I have also had to develop a rhythm to my work flow. It is a challenge to grow a team quickly - and pursue every opportunity - while also taking care of your own health and well-being!

4. As you look at your organization's body of work what is it that Behance is bringing to the table that you're simply not going to get from any other company?

In contrast to the many cool and creative sites and products out there for creative people, Behance is NOT focused on inspiration. We believe that creative people don't need more ideas, they need better execution.

So, every Behance product and service is designed to BOOST organization, professionalism, and execution. Our emphasis on efficiency is very rare in the creative community. Behance Network and Action Method users know that we are here to support their creative pursuits.

5. Now this past April you organized, along with Coolhunting, the first annual 99% conference.  This is where you and I met.  I love the whole idea of it being based on Thomas Edison's quote of "genius is 1% inspiration 99% perspiration."  Talk more about how the whole idea for the conference came about and lessons learned from it.

 The origin of the conference is pretty simple: There are SO SO MANY conferences and books about inspiration and creativity. However, there are no conferences about the EXECUTION of ideas, the "99%" that Edison refers to in his quote.

We named our conference "The 99%" because it covers everything but the 1% (the inspiration part) that you get everywhere else.

Last year's conference sold out! It was an amazing, motivated audience that all had a sense of conviction about them - brilliant creative minds that wanted to make it happen. Next year's conference is planned for April 15-16 in NYC (still some tickets left!). We have some great things planned for it...

6. Right now we are in a huge transition period. Significant changes in the economy, shifts in our culture, along with the rapid ascent of technology in the market, has made the perfect storm for new ideas to dramatically impact the market.  What are a few key ideas that you would recommend entrepreneurs and organizations leverage and utilize to successfully navigate today's climate?

You are right, this is an amazing time for creative minds! Here are a few things that we should all keep in mind...

• Identify your underutilized skills and talents that you've always wanted to pursue. Then do it. Now is a great time to take the risk. Whether it is a side gig or an attempt at a bold career change, an uncertain economy just reduces the "opportunity cost" of staying with the status quo.

• Recognize that, by pursuing a bold creative idea, you will either succeed or get a great experiential education. To me, this is a win-win situation.

• Don't go it alone. There is a simple fact in the creative world: Ideas don't happen in isolation. Identify the right partners for your creative pursuits. In my upcoming book (aptly titled MAKING IDEAS HAPPEN, being published in April 2010), I talk about the "doers, dreamers, and incrementalists," the three types of people in the creative community. You need to recognize your strengths and weaknesses and then find collaborators that balance them out.

•  Don't underestimate the importance of organization. I like to say that Creativity x Organization = Impact. As creatives we tend to obsess over the creativity part of the equation and forget to spend time organizing our schedule, our tasks, and the way we present ourselves to the world.

Scott is a very cool dude, and if you get a chance, Google him and his Behance crew; they're doing some wicked stuff.